Updates: Week of February 6

Thank you for taking the time to stop by our blog and read about what's going on in 5th Grade. Please be sure to check the Google Calendar that is linked at the top of the blog for important updates. 

Announcements

• Town Center Cookbook - We wanted to have the opportunity to create a TCE Family Traditions cookbook this year since our theme is all about family and celebrating the diversity within our community.  We would love to have you share one of your favorite family recipes to go into our cookbook this year.  If you are interested in participating, please send in your recipe to Casey Wagner, cwagner@coppellisd.com, or you may send in a paper copy of your recipe to the front office. 

• As a reminder, Mrs. Martin, our PE Teacher, has an awesome community health challenge to share with our TCE families. Please read her letter explaining the challenge and then check out these linked flyers about the challenge and ways to earn points. 
• As a reminder, we did add headphones to the learners' supply kits this year. We invite the learners to watch videos, use online learning tools, and play educational games in class often, and it is really important that they have headphones for these tasks. If your learner does not have a pair of headphones at school, please help them locate a pair so that they can be prepared for class. 
• We will have a Friday Schedule on Tuesday, February 7th because we will be having a special assembly. The Coppell Chorale will be coming to perform for the school at 8:30 am.
• Tomorrow, February 7th, we will have a Chasing Cupid Fun Run during Move and Groove (11:10-12:00). 
• This Friday, we will also have a fantastic learning opportunity for the 5th graders. DTCC will be coming to work with our learners on coding skills. 
• Finally, we will have our annual Engineering Extravaganza on Thursday, February 16th from 5:30-7:00 pm. At this event, we will have a variety of engineering activities set up for families to participate in. We'll have more information about this event coming soon. We hope you'll be able to make it. 

Sky Ranch Updates

• Please see our Sky Ranch flyer for updates and details about our trip. Within this flyer, we have included a link to our payment letter and a place for you to ask questions about the trip (should you feel the need). 
• We had an informational meeting for all 5th grade parents on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 5:30 PM. If you were not able to make it to the meeting, you should have received a copy of the paperwork in your learner's take home folder. 
• Our third payment of $50 was due on Friday, January 27th. After this payment, your paid balance should be at least $150. If you are unable to make these payments, please reach out to your son/daughter's homeroom teacher.  Of course, we understand that sometimes budgets can be tight and it may be hard to make the payment by that date, and we are happy to help if we can, but we do need for you to communicate with us rather than just not pay. Thank you for understanding! 

Class Meetings & Life Principles
As you know, we have weekly class meetings in which we discuss a variety of topics. The learners share a bit about what is happening in their lives (often referred to as "Ups and Downs"), and we discuss the weekly life principles (such as respect, sincerity, empathy). We also discuss life lessons such as finding joy, how to have more positive self-talk and ways in which we can make others feel good about themselves. We hope you'll ask your learners about the things we discuss in our class meetings!

Curriculum Tidbits
*We hope that you will periodically check our Twitter accounts as we tweet glimpses of what we're learning in class. You can find our tweets by searching the hashtag #tce5th or by going to our individual pages.

Math

In math, the learners will continue learning about Personal Financial Literacy. They are expected to know:

• What income tax, payroll tax, sales tax, and property tax are.
• The difference between gross income and net income.
• The advantages and disadvantages of different methods of payment, including check, credit card, debit card, and electronic payments.
• Actions that might be taken to balance a budget when expenses exceed income.

The kids are always very interested during this unit and love hearing about how it relates to people in their everyday lives. It would be so helpful to have conversations with your child to help them make personal connections to these topics and terms.

Science

In science, we are beginning to cover our unit over Earth’s Changing Surface. The learners will have learning experiences to help them answer the questions:

• How and why is the Earth’s surface constantly changing?
• How do Earth’s systems interact?
• What processes led to the formation of sedimentary rocks, fossils, and fossil fuels?
• What can fossils tell us about the Earth’s past?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy resources as compared with fossil fuel resources?

Reading, Writing, & Spelling

In reading, we will continue to study different genres. We will be reviewing the learners progress on reading comprehension and finding evidence in the text. 

In writing, we will begin to explore persuasive writing by researching both sides of an issue and developing arguments. 

Social Studies

We are wrapping up our study of the original thirteen colonies. For our final project, the learners are taking the point of view of a colonist and writing a letter to their families explaining why they've chosen to move to a particular county. Next we will begin to explore the events that led to the American Revolution. 

Homework Tidbits

• Reading Homework: 
• We are counting down the weeks until STAAR! Starting this week we will have your learners studying STAAR Reading vocabulary words for homework. They will also be exposed to these words during the school days and will be assessed on Fridays. 
• In addition, we will be starting our weekly Article of the Week (AOW) homework this week. If you were here last year, this homework will look similar to last year's homework. The learners will be provided with a current events article, and they will have specific tasks to accomplish each night. 
• Weekly Spelling List - Quiz on Friday: As a note, the learners do have a weekly spelling list that they are expected to study throughout the week. We include "Study for Spelling Quiz" in the homework section of our daily agendas, so if every your learner says they don't have homework, they do. While we do cover spelling in class, it is important for them to take the time to study at home as well. 
• Math/Science Homework: The weekly homework packet will be including Math practice and Science practice. The learners will have up to 5 Math questions and 5 Science questions a week. The learners also need to be completing their Reflex Math time. If their Reflex Math is not completed for the week, they will be required to spend that time in Homework Club during Texan Town. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your learner’s Math/Science teacher.

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Finally, thank you again for taking the time to read our blog. We know how important it is for our TCE families to know what is happening at school! If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. Our contact information is linked below for your convenience.

5A Morgan Peccarelli - mpeccarelli@coppellisd.com

5B Kate Seifert - kseifert@coppellisd.com

5C Marly Natherson - mnatherson@coppellisd.com

5D Jenna Taylor - jltaylor@coppellisd.com